COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh: Salons and parlours to re-open from May 22

After a lockdown of over 2 months, Madhya Pradesh is all set to reopen its salons and parlours. Home and Public Health and Family Health Minister Dr Narottam Mishra informed that all the parlours in the green zones of the state will be allowed to be functional from May 22. The owners will have to adhere to all the precautions and follow the guidelines issued in this regard.

In view of current situation of Covid-19 in the state, MP government has issued Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) to operate haircutting salons and parlors.

Few precautionary measures and guidelines were issued by the Health Departments:

· Directors have been instructed to take special care of precautions in haircutting.

· Compulsory sanitization of the customers as well as of all the tools and equipments used in haircutting should be done regularly.

· Staff should be under face mask, head cover and apron while working.

· One-time-usable towels and papers must be used.

· It has also been made compulsory for the salon / parlor operators to do the deformation of the common area, floors, stairs and handrails by the Home Department.

For the eighth successive day a high number of fresh coronavirus cases continued to swamp Madhya Pradesh. Thursday’s 248 cases took the state's tally to 5981. The average of positive cases through the past eight days has been 233.

Indore reported 59 fresh cases onThursday taking its total to 2774 while the death toll in the district is 105. The state's toll has risen to 266.

Ujjain (61),Bhopal (27), Burhanpur (12) Khandwa (22),Morena (14) and Rewa (11) were other towns with a high number of new cases.

The government does acknowledge the rising trend caused by heavy movement of migrant workers. But its reactions have raised questions.